Radio star Gene Autry returns to his home town of Gold Ridge at the request of his old friend Pop Harrison, who wants Gene to straighten out his wayward son, Tex Harrison, whose gambling and drinking threaten to bankrupt the rodeo organization which he heads. News photographer Clementine "Clem" Benson and reporter Hack Hackett are ordered to follow Gene. The group finds quarters at the "Bar Nothing" dude ranch, winter quarters for Tex's rodeo group, and Tex soon tangles with Hackett in a quarrel. The latter wins a thousand-dollar bag of gold from Sunrise, a miner who has earned his stake digging in the supposedly abandoned mine beneath Gold Ridge. Hackett spots a fugitive Chicago racketeer, Crowley, who is hiding out from the mob he has double-crossed. During a "Frontier Days" celebration, Hackett is killed and the sheriff orders an investigation of all the guns of the performers, who were using blanks, and Tex's gun is found with live ammunition and he is charged with murder because of the earlier quarrel. Gene suspects Crowley as he learns of his real background, but the true killer is neither Tex nor Crowley.